QuickAdvice: The Squadron - Path Drawing Mixed With Castle Defense?
The Squadron ($0.99) by Republic of Fun is a new path drawing game where you direct the flight of a squadron of planes to protect an ancient aztec device. Ground units are coming in from different paths at all times, and you have to stop them from reaching the device. You begin with one plane, and new ones enter at certain intervals.
You can let eight units reach the device, but the ninth unit causes it to self destruct, and game over. You score points for every unit destroyed, and try to keep the device safe for as long as possible as you accrue new planes, but deal with more enemy units. There is a nuclear bomb you can use to destroy all units on screen though it recharges slowly so use it wisely.
Gameplay The gameplay is as good as you would expect from a new twist on path drawing. It works well on the iPad with the big area to see the entire map well, and direct planes easily with broad strokes. The game is similar to Flight Control in managing planes, but adds to the complexity by requiring you to balance more and more planes on screen at once without landing.
There are 11 different paths enemy units come in on, and you’ll have to keep sending planes to the beginning of those paths. Planes don’t just hover in one location so when you send them to the edge of the screen to concentrate on others they soon will be back with more units coming in on the path the plane left.
You have to be more precise with you path drawing as the planes have to be pointed at the enemies to fire upon them, and there are multiple squiggly splitting paths. To make things tougher there are anti-aircraft units placed from time to time which you can’t get rid of. You will get to a point where you will desperately need the nuke as there are units coming from all paths approaching the device.
The art style is very well done with extremely fine details in the jungle landscape. The action is nice as well from the various explosions of destroyed units to the movement of the planes and ground units. There is an action soundtrack that is nice to listen to with the game style.
There is a fast forward button which helps for the veteran path drawers. The game keeps your local high score, but there is no online connectivity which is a definite disappointment. Path drawing games are made for online high scores, so without them there is a blow to the replay factor.
Another problem is that there is only one map which hurts variability, and further knocks replay. The anti aircraft units can’t be destroyed so you’ll lose a few planes because you can’t constantly avoid them.
Verdict The Squadron is a well made game that creates a nice little twist on path drawing by kind of mixing it with castle defense. You have to protect the center while dealing with increasing numbers of enemy units. The game is designed well, but is too simplistic in scope.
There is only one map, lack of online high scores, and overall lack of continuing challenge. For $0.99 it's not worth it at this stage as there are many better path drawing games on the iPad.
